DRY-LAND ARBORICULTURE IN ANCIENT AFRICA. 



11 



The gnarled old olive trees that are found here and there over the 

 country (fig. 2), often standing in straight rows just as they were 

 planted centuries ago, a and the almost innumerable ruins of oil mills 

 answer our questions. The remains of more than a thousand oil mills 

 are said to exist in the hundred square miles around Suffetula alone. 

 The} 7 were built of stone and were often of imposing size. In many 

 places the stone basins in which the fruit was crushed and the per- 

 forated stone pil- 

 lars that sup- 

 ported the bar of 

 the press are still 

 to be seen. 



If we turn to 

 the Koman and 

 Arabic historians 

 and geographers, 

 we find abundant 

 evidence that the 

 wealth of this 

 part of Africa 

 was based upon 

 dry-land tree cul- 

 ture on a vast 

 scaled The olive 

 was undoubtedly 

 the chief source 



„ , . Fig. 2. — An olive tree, probably several centuries old, growing 



01 these riches, without irrigation in Algeria. 



although other 



more or less drought-resistant trees, such as the pistache, fig, and 

 almond, doubtless played an important part. It has been calculated 

 that the olive orchards of southern Tunis covered 2,500,000 acres when 

 the Arabs conquered the country, about 700 A. D. Ancient Rome, 

 which consumed an enormous quantity of olive oil, drew its supply 

 largely from this region. Under the Caesars the province of Africa, 

 which comprised the same territory as modern Tunis, was taxed 

 300,000 gallons yearly for the benefit of the capital. So important 



a Olive trees several hundred years old are frequently met with in Algeria and 

 Tunis. In many places the existing trees are offshoots that have sprung up 

 from the roots of older ones, the original trunk having long since disappeared. 



h This view was first advanced in a convincing form, with an admirable sum- 

 ming up of the historical and archaeological evidence, by P. Bourde, at one time 

 Director of Agriculture in Tunis, in a little pamphlet entitled " Rapport sur les 

 Cultures Fruitieres et en Particulier sur la Culture de 1' Olivier dans le Centre 

 de la Tunisie." (Report on Fruit Culture and Especially Olive Culture in Cen- 

 tral Tunis.) Tunis, 1802 ; 2d edition, 1899. 



c Graham, Alexander. Roman Africa, London, 1902, p. 57. 

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